Kobaton
by veivei
Summary: Mikado's life was going to be so much less exciting once Kida left. Set in a town in Saitama in 1998. Guest starring Chikage.
1. Chapter 1

_A town in Saitama, 1998_

"So my parents were talking yesterday and it seems it's set I'll be transferring to a school in Tokyo proper after the spring break ends. It's kinda great, don't you think, Mikado?" Kida mused walking alongside Mikado back home after the last day of school before the spring break.

Next academic year they were going to be in the 6th grade already. It sounded kind of cool really, except Kida leaving was taking away all the joy from everything.

"Why the long face, Mikado?" Kida asked, throwing his hands up in an exaggerated gesture. "Ikebukuro isn't even that far away. It's only an hour on the train with one transfer."

For Mikado, who had never set foot outside his home town in Saitama and never rode on the JR trains to Tokyo, it seemed absolutely unreachable though which just meant Kida was going to be gone from his life. The 6th grade was probably going to be okay without him, seeing as there were going to be no senpais at school but middle school next year promised disaster with Mikado's social awkwardness and no Kida to shelter him from other students.

"I'll be visiting you. I promise." Kida declared, intent on making Mikado stop sulking.

Even if Kida was really going to drop in for a visit once a month though and Mikado honestly didn't even hope for that much seeing as he wasn't a very interesting person to begin with, it wasn't going to be enough to make up for his constant presence.

"Mikado, your eyes tear up." Kida pointed out, stopping in front of Mikado who hid his face behind his hands and trembled lightly. "Uhh... Please don't cry. That's so unmanly..." Kida commented, all of a sudden at a loss of what to do with Mikado acting like that.

"Am I interrupting something?" Another boy's voice asked politely from behind their backs. "I'm sorry if I am but I have a business with someone called Kida Masaomi and since I've heard he wasn't going to be there after the spring break anymore I figured it was my last chance to have a chat." The boy who had confronted them was clearly a middle-schooler if not older. It spelled trouble for that reason alone.

Kida turned back to face him. Mikado did too, reluctantly, prying his hands away from his face, even though he was all for just running away and hiding at home. He wasn't going to do that and leave Kida behind though, at least not without being explicitly told to by him.

The guy was really quite big, he must have been 15 or so. Mikado recognized the local middle school uniform on him with some kind of flowery decoration in his breast pocket left over from the graduation ceremony. So it was basically a high-schooler. What trouble had Kida landed himself into this time, Mikado wondered.

"So which one of you is this Kida Masaomi because I'd like to avoid hitting the wrong person." The boy declared, cracking his knuckles with a sound that made a shiver run down Mikado's spine.

A soft giggle resounded from behind the corner of the street. An edge of a plaited skirt could be seen for a moment before the schoolgirls hiding there retreated back so as not to be visible. Mikado blinked.

"So you must be Chikage, eh?" Kida inquired, looking up at the high-schooler with no trace of fear in his eyes.

"Kida-kun..." Mikado whispered urgently seeing the guy starting to walk in their direction. It was really time to run. Every single elementary school kid knew as much when a high-schooler was approaching with the clear intention of beating them up. Except Kida Masaomi, that's it.

"It's Rokujou-san for you, kid."

"I think this is some... misunderstanding..." Mikado uttered weakly, frightened by his own sudden courage to speak up.

Chikage's eyes landed on Mikado's face and amusement lit them up instantly. There were fresh traces of tears on Mikado's reddened cheeks and he was looking even younger than he really was.

"Please go home, it has nothing to do with you." Chikage encouraged him with a smile. "I'm not some kind of a bully who just randomly picks up on kids. Rather, I have a very specific interest in your friend here." He declared, looking back at Kida.

"He's right, Mikado. Go home. I'll come by tomorrow." Kida agreed.

"B...But..."

Mikado glanced at Kida questioningly, a painful pang in his chest accompanying the thought that Kida had some secrets from him again. If it was already like that with him living in Saitama, barely a few houses down the street, then what were the chances of staying friends after he was going to move away?

"I'll explain it to you tomorrow, Mikado." Kida said light-heartedly.

Mikado broke into a run, more tears escaping his eyes for some reason. He ran all the way home and upon reaching his family's house, nearly blacked out at the door with how short his breath was after all the running and crying. He managed to reach his bed before promptly loosing consciousness.

_note: since Kida didn't have bleached hair back then he didn't really have vastly different looks from Mikado - that's why Chikage asked which one of them was Kida_


	2. Chapter 2

He woke up the next morning, burning up with fever, a note from his mother and some medication left over on the night table greeting him. It seemed she went out shopping. So he had slept through all of the afternoon and the whole previous night and yet he was still feeling that bad nearly by noon.

"Hi."

Mikado startled upon hearing Kida's voice by his side.

"Your mother let me in. You don't look so well though." He observed.

His voice sounded weird. Mikado looked up at him. His eyes widened when he realized how badly swollen Kida's face was. His left arm was on a sling, too.

Mikado felt a pang of guilt upon realizing he could have prevented that. If only he went looking for help instead of running away selfishly...

"Look." Kida smiled widely with a satisfied expression. He was missing two teeth. It seemed he was very proud of himself for some reason, though. He laughed at Mikado's dumb-founded expression. "At least I got one more good fight in Saitama before leaving. It was really the strongest guy I've ever met around here." He exclaimed happily.

"I'm sorry I didn't get help." Mikado apologized, ignoring Kida's glee.

"Mi-ka-do. You really don't get anything." Kida sighed dramatically.

"Why did he beat you up?"

"Well, there were these two middle school girls. I talked to them for a bit once, since you left me all alone on a Saturday after you went home for dinner." Kida sighed as if to make the point about how cruel that was. "It was a few weeks ago. One of them asked me to hang out again~ and I was all for it, of course. We walked for a bit around the park one evening after you went home. But then I've heard the other one of these girls has gotten jealous." Kida sighed again. "You see Mikado, girls dig me entirely too much. And then they had that cat fight between the two of them at their school, it seems? So I decided it was better not to get involved with them again and refused to meet them. So they started following this Chikage guy around instead. I've heard a dozen or so girls do so at all times. It's like he has a harem or something. Awesome, isn't it, Mikado?" Kida exclaimed excitedly. "And then they told him something about how I set them against each other or something like that..." His elated expression changed into a frown. "...which I didn't do on purpose but well, he still showed up to beat me up. You know, I couldn't really back off considering he got it all wrong. I managed to land one hit. It sucks to be an elementary school kid." Kida whined, probing around the remnants of his broken teeth with his finger. "Mikado?" He looked at Mikado questioningly.

"It's nothing, Kida-kun." Mikado smiled at him bravely even though there were tears in his eyes again.

His life was going to be so much less exciting once Kida left. He felt like holding him still somehow and not letting him go.

_Note: the whole thing was inspired by a realization of mine that Mikado, Kida and Chikage all came from Saitama so they could have possibly met there back when they were all living there_

_And Kobaton is the Saitama prefecture official mascot._


End file.
